Independent School Management Plus - Winter 2021

s u l MANAGEMENT p Winter 2021

I N D E P E N D E N T

S C H O O L

The BUSINESS of INDEPENDENT EDUCATION

Navigating A Virtual World

SCHOOL

Student recruitment today

mergers An opportunity for innovation?

Wellbeing

In partnership with

IN DIFFICULT TIMES BURSARS

HEADS

G OV E R N O R S

vir tual-schoolexperience.com

ADMISSIONS

SCHOOLMANAGEMENTPLUS.COM

DEVELOPMENT

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William Clarence Education Green Park House, 15 Stratton Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8LQ Tel: +44 (0)207 412 8988

EDITOR

Irena Barker editor@schoolmanagementplus.com

DESIGN & PRINT

Fellows Media Ltd The Gallery, Southam Lane, Cheltenham GL52 3PB 01242 259241 bryony.morris@fellowsmedia.com

ADVERTISING

Jacob Holmes jacob.holmes@fellowsmedia.com 01242 259249

PUBLISHER

William Clarence Education Ltd William Clarence Education is a leading UK education consultancy working with independent schools throughout the UK, and British international schools overseas. williamclarence.com schoolmanagementplus.com

DISTRIBUTION

Print and digital copies of Independent School Management Plus are distributed to named head teachers, principals, marketing and admissions leads in every independent school in the UK, plus British international schools overseas. The magazine is published three times a year.

© William Clarence Education

No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. The information contained in Independent School Management Plus has been published in good faith and every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy. All liability for loss, disappointment, negligence or damage caused by reliance on the information contained within this publication is hereby excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Foreword

For most of us, saying goodbye to 2020 didn’t cause any great heartache, to say the least. It was a year that challenged schools to the limit in every way, from their finances to the wellbeing of staff and pupils and, for some, there was an overall sense of doom in the sector.

Despite this, the great challenges of last year, which continue into 2021, have strengthened the sector in innumerable ways. Many schools impressed with their seamless switch to online learning, and financial managers were uic to adjust to the new conditions.

Where many may have feared an exodus of parents as the economy nose-dived, new families came knocking, looking desperately for some stability in their child’s learning.

The wellbeing of students and staff has been a constant focus for our schools over recent months and in this edition we look at the impressive work undertaken by Seaford College and the Kellett School in Hong Kong to support their communities (p6-10).

It has also been heartening to see schools adapting to the new conditions through wellthought out mergers and ac uisitions. A Seamless and Happy Union (p20-22) looks at the experiences of Malvern St James and underscores the mar eting benefits of a merger.

While individuals were being pushed further apart by coronavirus, schools have been getting together, pooling their resources and coming out stronger and better as a result.

Irena Barker By coming together, we are stronger and can face Editor; the continuing challenges of the pandemic in 2021. schoolmanagementplus.com

Our School Management Plus online platform is now live offering a wealth of information.

Keep up-to-date and get involved: • Latest news, regular features and opinion • Monthly newsletter and jobs to your inbox • Contribute your own ideas and opinion • Join our webinars and round-table discussions We are the leading opinion platform for the successful running of a modern independent school. Always keen to hear about the issues that matter to you most, get in touch to have your school’s voice heard. editor@schoolmanagementplus.com

N W W W.S C H O O LM A

A G EM EN T PL U S. C O

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Cover image courtesy of Seaford College

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Susan Barnhurst Academic Deputy Head at Wellingborough School and senior leader for a major UK examining board

CO N T EN T S

Dr Helen Wright Educational consultant, former Head of St Mary’s Calne and President of the Girls’ Schools Association

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The heart of the school

Tory Gillingham AMCIS CEO, former Marketing Director at Pocklington School and Marketing and Development Director at St Peter’s School,York Ian Hunt School board member in the UK and Middle East, leader of international educational projects and a contributor to the national press Hugh Monro Board director and chair of governors for schools in the UK and Europe Peter Tait Educational journalist, advisor, trainer and former Head of Sherborne Preparatory School Stuart Nicholson Principal at Bishopstrow College, former Head of CCCS and Kingsley School Nick Gallop Head of Stamford School, regular contributor to the TES and editor of Politics Review

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Securing a bright future

HEADS & GOVERNORS 6

The Pink House Seaford College’s acclaimed wellbeing centre

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Embedding Wellbeing Supporting staff and student welfare at Kellett School in Hong Kong

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Not an Easy Balancing Act Our interview with Richard Harman from AGBIS

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Looking the Future In The Eye: Mergers & Acquisitions A source of protection and an opportunity for innovation

MARKETING & ADMISSIONS 20

A Seamless and Happy Union Malvern St James has used its brand heritage to fuse together its alumnae community

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Virtual Performances Performing arts and student recruitment during Lockdown

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Risk is all around us

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From Open Days to Virtual School Experiences How COVID-19 has changed the rules

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Marketing Speak AMCIS’ CEO considers the challenges of 2020

DEVELOPMENT 32

Securing a Bright Future Bursary fundraising in challenging times

BURSARS 36

Risk is All Around Us Technology rides to the rescue of estate managers

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The Heart of The School An interview with Bella Henry from the Catering Department at NHEHS

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Talking Point Resisting the decolonisation of the curriculum

Winter 2021

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HEADS & GOVERNORS

THE PINK HOUSE

The Pink House, Seaford College’s acclaimed wellbeing centre, is central to supporting the mental health and emotional wellbeing of students and staff. Sarah Twigger e plains.

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eaford College, near Petworth, gives students the self-belief to achieve their best and pursue their dreams.

Our pastoral core supports our academic core and this focus, combined with our inclusive ethos, is one of the major reasons for our success.

Every student is known and valued, given attention and respect plus the support they need when they need it. It’s important to us that students have options when they need support, whether it’s simply a chat with their Tutor, our Chaplain, a Peer Mentor or some more formal style of counselling. Boarding houses have

‘Issues small and large can be shared’

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experienced Houseparents who develop close relationships with their students, providing practical assistance as well as emotional support.

The level of care in our community comes from our Headmaster. We are open about the pressures that young people face. We don’t have a higher percentage of students with problems, we’re just honest about dealing with them.

The Pink House

We also have the Pink House. Dedicated to counselling, emotional support and wellbeing for our students, it’s located right in the centre of the campus. The building has a cosy living room downstairs where students can meet for a cup of tea and some cake at break time. The room has comfortable sofas and a cosy feel.

Often students that come here want a

uiet space to re ect or read. pstairs, the Pink House has rooms where our pastoral team meet students to help support them. As you walk up to the Pink House, the garden that leads to the entrance has been planted to help students feel relaxed.

The Pink House team provide a listening ear over a cup of tea whenever a student needs them. Students in need of support know they can go to the Pink House at any time and teachers will let the Pink House team know that the student is on their way. We have a pastoral dog, who supports the Pastoral Care Team and has had a lot of success in helping students to open up and relax. Students visit for many reasons, which could be exam worries, friendship problems, or simply a wish to stroke our pastoral dog, Kia, and relax after an exam.

HEADS & GOVERNORS

‘There is no stigma about mental health.’

Peer Mentors

Students look out for each other as well.

There are students who won’t come to the Pink House because they feel self-conscious, but their peers might come to the team and say their friend is struggling, or even bring that friend to the Pink House for support. We have Peer Mentors in both the Prep and Senior Schools. They are trained externally at the start of the academic year and are able to pick up on warning signs, look after young people, talk to them and then inform us.

In the Prep School, we have a dedicated Pink Room, for students needing advice and support and a pastoral dog called Robyn. Genuine care is taken by the older pupils in looking after younger ones. Visitors often comment on the ‘happy atmosphere and warm community’ at Seaford. Our Prep School Peer Mentors play a crucial role in the wellbeing of students: whilst playing games together, they share their experiences about growing up.

This attention to care helps develop an environment of openness where issues small and large can be shared.

This, together with our approach to the development of the individual, gives the pupils and the school huge pastoral strength. Students learn from a young age how to talk about their feelings and this is then something they feel comfortable doing as they go through the school, where perhaps the situations they’re dealing with are more complex.

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Weekly pastoral meetings ensure that no student ‘ ies beneath the radar’ either academically or pastorally. Tutors play a vital role in supporting their tutees, meeting with them for over an hour every Monday, and then daily twice a day. This close support enables us to provide proactive pastoral care. All tutors have honest student-led PSHE sessions.

Students learn about resilience and

strategies to adapt in the face of adversity.

Our pastoral mesh also includes classroom teachers who may sometimes be the first to spot that a particular student is struggling, or notice a change in behaviour. Anything of concern is fed back to the tutor. SEND students have lessons with a specialist teacher each week, and our SENCO attends pastoral meetings.

ailo ed and e ed

Crucially, our pastoral and wellbeing wor is tailored and exed according to need and what works.

We have a Pastoral Leadership Team which monitors and develops our practices and policies, oversees the work of the tutors and helps shape and suppor t the various messages delivered to the children through tutor times, PSHE lessons, assemblies, talks by visitors and our weekly Chapel services. We offer advice and suppor t to parents, too, either by email or in the form of meetings, on topics such as supporting children during their teenage years. Any such meetings are led by specialists in the field.

Wellbeing is equally impor tant for all our staff. A staff counsellor offers confidential sessions and members of the Pink House team are also always happy to support staff.

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Becca Randell from the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Academic Health Science Network says, “There is no stigma about mental health, there is a whole school approach. Mr Green, the Headmaster, understands how important it is to invest as a school in mental health, emotional wellbeing and emotional resilience.”

Our team supports lots of vulnerable students and they implement strategies to help them succeed and achieve. It could be by giving them confidence and structure or by walking with them into an exam hall (often with our pastoral dog’s support) or in some cases starting with lessons in the Pink House where they feel safe before gradually introducing them into the classroom. Our approach supports the positive mental health of many students in many situations from home sickness, bereavement, family problems, through to friendship or general confidence issues.

Ensuring that our students are healthy, in body and mind, is always at the forefront of our hearts and crucial for wellbeing. Our wellbeing culture isn’t complicated. It’s the little interactions each day that make the difference. What we do is people-led and truly world-class, and to quote a parent, is why our ‘culture is so amazing’. ●

SARAH TWIGGER is Director of Marketing at Seaford College. She set up the Marketing Department at Seaford, and she loves showcasing life in their warm and friendly community in an authentic way.

Winter 2021 | schoolmanagemen lus com | 7

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EMBEDDING WELLBEING IN THE WHOLE SCHOOL CULTURE

Mark Steed considers the importance of good mental health amongst staff and students and e plains how wellbeing has been embedded into the curriculum at ellett chool in ong ong.

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ellbeing has been working its way up the agenda in both education and business and industry over the past 20 years. In education, there is a growing recognition that there is little point sending A* students to top universities and on into the workplace if they are not going to cope with the wider challenges that they are going to face there. At the same time, the importance of wellbeing has begun to impact on business thinking beyond its traditional habitat of the HR Department.

Over this time, the wider shift in the economy, from the industrial to the digital, has moved the conversation from ‘Health & Safety at work’ (the physical) to ‘Workplace Wellness’ (the mental).

The taboo of mental health

For many years, mental health has been a bit of a taboo. Slowly, society is beginning to grasp the scale of its mental health problem. According to research published in The Lancet in 2018, there were an estimated 970 million people globally with mental disorders of whom 264 million were affected by depression. It is generally agreed that the wor place is a significant contributory factor to issues relating to mental health – indeed the World Health rgani ation recently re classified ‘ urnout’ as a disease linked to chronic stress at work.

Tragically, Hong Kong, where Kellett School is based, has one of the highest rates of teenage suicide in the world. Over 120 children and teenagers in the city killed themselves between 2006 and 2015 – accounting in some years for 30% of unnatural deaths for that age group. Great awareness of mental health issues means that rates are falling but each year there are still cases – indeed the educational community here is still reeling from a Year 11 student taking her own life the week before I write.

Given the wider and local contexts, it is not difficult to see why ellett has placed a particular emphasis on Wellbeing education

‘Mental health has been a bit of a taboo’ which has become enshrined in our wholeschool programme, Positively Kellett.

Positively Kellett

Kellett School is part of the ‘Positive Education’ movement which is based on the research into the benefits of ‘ ositive Psychology’ developed by Professor Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania.

At Kellett, we follow a bespoke curriculum in which all students have one lesson a week to be explicitly taught the skills of Positive Psychology and the science of wellbeing.

The aim of this is to foster the attitudes and habits that will enable them to cope with the stresses and strains of life and to thrive in the fast-changing world of the mid-C21.

Furthermore, there is evidence that Positive Education delivers better educational outcomes for students.The areas covered include: a growth mindset, a healthy body, a healthy mind, effective communication, a positive sense of self, respectful relationships, and resilience. At Kellett, this approach is not limited to our students but also extends to our teaching and non-teaching staff.

Winter 2021 | schoolmanagementplus.com | 9

HEADS & GOVERNORS

Kellett’s experience

So, what do schools need to do to embed a wellbeing programme into their school? These are the lessons learned from Kellett’s experience.

1. Have an embedded long-term commitment to wellbeing

Wellbeing is a top priority at Kellett – it is one of our ‘skyscrapers’ – areas where we devote significant resources and effort and to which we have a long-term commitment. Positive Education is not just a fad – it is fundamental to what we are as an organisation. Clarity over its status ensures that we don’t bounce from one ad hoc initiative to another; but, instead, have a coherent, embedded programme of development.

2. Involve everyone in the programme

Staff across the school, from teachers to our administrative team, undertook training led by Geelong Grammar School’s Institute of Positive Education, driving the ethos and energy throughout the school. Sustainability is secured through our advisory team who steer the long-term strategy, and implementation teams who lead the improvement plans. Heads of the Positive Education Curriculum assure quality and champion the work in this area.

3. Build wellbeing into the week

All photos courtesy of Kellett School

Time is one of our most valuable resources, so by setting aside a proportion each week for Positive Education, we are saying as an organisation that we believe

‘Don’t bounce from one ad hoc initiative to another’

in investing in the personal growth and development of those in our community.

Student wellbeing is also supported through our weekly Feel Good Fridays, which are designed to send students into the weekend feeling great. They have a tremendous impact on our students at both Prep and Senior level.

embrace suggestions for change.

The key to wellbeing questionnaires is not just about data collection and analysis – it is also about action. We actively follow up in a non-judgemental way. Any student or staff-member who self-reports that their personal wellbeing is at a level less than 5/10 is offered counselling support. We need to encourage people to break the silence and to talk about the challenges they are facing and to give them the support they need.

4. Hold community events

6. Create a culture of support

Schools, by their very nature, are places where people, in normal times, come together and thus, they are a focus not only for students but also for the wider community. Our Positive Education programme is for all of our stakeholders.

Bringing together students, staff and parents in a variety of educational and participatory wellbeing events has meant that we have developed a shared vocabulary that has benefited our whole community.

5. Use regular questionnaires and follow-up

At Kellett, we regularly ask our students and staff how they are doing, and if there is anything that we can do to better support them. It is important that we are prepared to listen, spot patterns and

rofessor artin eligman ipped the traditional question of ‘What is wrong with you?’ to ‘What is right with you?’

Building on this work, Kellett adopts a strengths-based approach to working with our students and staff, which understands success and achievements in terms of character strengths, rather than aws. t is an approach that focuses on life-long growth and development. This is re ected in our Staff Appraisal system which focuses on identifying areas where individuals can develop their professional practice and enhance their skills.

The impact of this has been a change of culture within our staff who are also now more understanding of one another, creating a culture of support throughout our organisation. ●

MARK S. STEED is the Principal and CEO of Kellett School, the British School in Hong Kong; and previously ran schools in Devon, Hertfordshire and Dubai. He tweets @independenthead

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HEADS & GOVERNORS

NOT AN EASY BALANCING ACT! Richard Harman, the CEO of AGBIS, talks to David Moncrieff about the challenges which have confronted school governors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Independent schools, like every other business in the country, went through a tumultuous period in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic; what have proved to be the particular challenges for school governors?

Probably the biggest challenge has been working out how best to support senior staff, who have been under the most enormous pressure, whilst at the same time fulfilling their duties as governors, company directors and in many cases charity trustees.

Like everyone else, governors have had to move into ‘ oom world’, figuring out how to do governance effectively by remote means. I think some of this has been very effective whilst other aspects are problematic. How can you really know what is happening in school if you cannot visit the site? How can you replace those informal marginal conversations around a meeting that are often so important?

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Finances have been a challenge for many, particularly around the question of fees for the summer term when schools were closed and everything moved online.The crucial thing about how schools handled this was communication; for better or worse, reputations were enhanced or otherwise.

Governing bodies have had to become as nimble and exible in their own methods of working as they can. My advice to them has been keep an eye on your risk register (which will have changed since this time last year), remember that ‘cash is king’ – and don’t panic!

various associations have had good links to ministers and officials at the f , funnelled via the ISC staff. This has helped our voice get heard. These regular lines of communication have been beneficial to schools, even if much of the work happens ‘offstage’ and is therefore unseen.

Do you feel that the needs and concerns of the independent sector are properly considered by central government and education policy-makers?

‘More haste, less speed’, as the old saying goes. It is remarkable what can be done at pace under pressure but care still needs to

lthough it has been difficult at times to keep up with the changing government guidance through the pandemic (and I am not necessarily blaming them for that) we have been fortunate that our

How do you feel an effective relationship between governors and the executive leadership team of a school is best achieved when farreaching decisions have to be made at some speed?

COVID-19 has been ‘the great accelerator’

HEADS & GOVERNORS

existing trends have been turbocharged • the rapid and successful shift to remote teaching and learning; • excellent pastoral care, both during school closure and since they have returned; • communications with parents and other key stakeholders.

As a general point, the strengths and weaknesses of each school going into the pandemic have been brought to the surface as it has unfolded; existing trends have been turbocharged. COVID-19 has been ‘the great accelerator’.

We are all aware that some schools are considering mergers, refinancing and, sadly, in some cases closure. What is the role of the governing body in identifying and exploring options and validating proposed plans of action? be taken. Good lines of communication, especially between Head and Chair but also including Bursar/Clerk and Chair of Finance, have been more important than ever. Some schools have found it useful to convene small governor/ executive working groups to look at different aspects – immediate challenges like fees in lockdown, questions about capital projects, longer-term strategic challenges – but they must remember that governance is collective and so no sense of inner cliques or power groups should be allowed to develop. They must also resist the temptation to get drawn into operational matters which are the proper preserve of the executive – whilst supporting them and being a sounding board as needed.

The hallmark of schools that have been handling the pandemic most successfully is empathy – and this starts at the very top, with the governing body setting the tone.

What do you think are the stand-out features of the independent school sector’s response to the pandemic?

Obviously, there are exceptions – but the following are the top three features I have seen:

The good news so far is that there are probably not as many schools in this position as had been feared over the summer; pupil numbers have held up very well to date – but there are certainly some in difficulty and we do not yet now the extent of the longer-term economic impact.

Mergers, acquisitions and sales are specialist areas and governors will need to take professional advice early on if they are considering those options, whether from a position of relative strength or weakness, or simply to ’future proof ’ their schools.

If you are considering something like a merger, think early on about an effective communications plan – but be very careful to balance desirable transparency with the need for confidentiality.

Whether or not radical structural action is being considered, very careful cost control is vital. The spotlight is currently on the costs to employers of teachers’ pensions, pressures on pay, staff: pupil ratios – all at a time when staff are generally

working harder than ever. Not an easy set of rapids for governors to navigate.

Looking ahead to the postpandemic era, how do you view the future of the independent school sector unfolding?

Using remote learning as part of a blended approach to teaching and learning is here to stay. Likewise, the use (but not over-use) of video technology for even more efficient and effective for governance/meetings.

There will be greater consolidation in the sector, with schools moving into formal or informal groupings, mergers etc. Diversity and inclusion will move rapidly up the agenda for many schools, as will the environment/green issues.

Many schools will enhance their standing with parents and the community by adapting and communicating exceptionally well; some will not. The educational advantage gap will be a major political issue for years to come public benefit, partnership working and widening access via bursaries will be more important than ever.

So, finally, when you look back on 2020 – and we know the crisis isn’t over yet – what impressed you most about our schools’ broader response to the pandemic?

I have been astonished, and massively impressed, by the way staff and leaders in our schools have responded in the best interests of both the children in their care and the communities around them.

Whether looking after children of key workers during lockdown, working in partnership with local schools and faith groups, helping raise funds for food banks or in so many other ways on top of the ‘day job’, they really have gone the extra mile. ●

RICHARD HARMAN is CEO of AGBIS. He was previously Headmaster of Aldenham and subsequently Uppingham. Richard is a past Chairman of the BSA and of HMC.

Winter 2021 | schoolmanagementplus.com | 13

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HEADS & GOVERNORS

LOOKING THE FUTURE IN THE EYE:

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS Effective management of the strategic direction and development of schools has never been so critical as in today’s COVID-impacted world. Barney Northover and Kenji Batchelor from law firm VWV offer some thoughts on how mergers and acquisitions can provide shelter to some schools and innovative and attractive solutions to others.

M

uch has been made of C acting as both disruptor and accelerator. Since March 2020, independent schools have changed and adapted in ways we would have previously thought impossible. They have navigated their way through multiple loc downs, delivered remote teaching and met new regulatory re uirements. nd, all the while, they have sought to balance their boo s in many cases, in the short term, introducing temporary fee discounts and ma ing use of the furlough scheme. ut notwithstanding the hope offered by the arrival of effective vaccines, more challenges lie ahead. The impact of the recession on pupil rolls remains un nown.

This means difficult decisions on T will need to be made. The threat of tax changes lingers as politicians seek to balance the nation’s

finances. rexit will also have an impact on the ’s relationship with mar ets.

The issue of the affordability of education in the sector also continues to loom large. Schools need to remain vigilant and manage their situation carefully.

Changing with the times

chools have always needed to change with the times in response to shifting demand for, and supply of, an independent education. There have always been mergers, acquisitions and disposals of schools and there are a very many success stories. ven before the financial difficulties induced by the C crisis, it was increasingly seen as a good strategy to join with other schools within a group.

We have seen this in the state sector, where academies have been encouraged to federate in ulti cademy Trusts, and in our own sector we have seen the growth of local and national

groups of both commercial and charitable schools. One of the drivers for this trend is the need to take advantage of economies of scale and offer protection from financial shoc s of the type we are now experiencing.

It takes courage for leaders and governors to initiate the conversation n the current crisis, many governors and proprietors will now be considering whether their school should join with others. This could be either to ensure their own survival or to offer shelter and protection to other schools, particularly those which are feeders or complement their own school’s educational mission.

Winter 2021 | schoolmanagementplus.com | 15

HEADS & GOVERNORS

Why and when to consider a merger or acquisition

The decision to consider a merger, acquisition or disposal can be one of strategic opportunity or a solution to a challenge. One key message in this article is to undertake a ‘health-check’ on the school.This may uncover different drivers for schools to consider when contemplating strategic change of this nature. Such drivers can include: • over-supply of school places in your area as a result of demographic changes • competition from other independent schools or the state sector • under-investment in previous years • rising costs and the need to realise economies of scale • retirement of key staff • parental demand for a wider curriculum, more facilities, co-education, a wider age range, or simply for a larger school • affordability challenges and downward pressure on fees

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A good communications strategy is one of the key critical factors If there are warning signs, the key is to act on them early. Get to know the market. Understand local and national demographics. Recognise economic trends and set realistic expectations on projected pupil numbers and income. In the case of proprietary schools, be aware of looming succession issues.

It takes courage for leaders and governors to initiate the conversation, but it is a wise school that looks at the area it serves and determines that, being absolutely objective, if competing local schools combine, they may be better placed to meet the needs of the community and secure their long-term future, albeit in another form. A similarly difficult conversation about the status of a school – in particular whether a charity

remains best-placed to operate a school or whether a for profit operator may be better placed to take it forward – may be necessary to ensure the future success and longevity of a school.

Unfortunately for some, the pressure and pace of change will leave little option but face permanent closure, but it should be a last resort having considered all other routes – including mergers, acquisitions and other strategic projects – first.

How to prepare

nce a school has identified its strengths and weaknesses and decided it is in its best interests to explore strategic opportunities, we would recommend that the leadership team contemplating a merger, acquisition or disposal take

HEADS & GOVERNORS independent professional advice, including from lawyers, accountants, surveyors and PR advisers.

You should also draw up a descriptive profile of the school and identify clear objectives and benefits which are sought from a merger, acquisition or sale. It can be helpful to seek professional support if you need a ‘match-making’ go-between.

When you have a prospective school partner or partners in mind, an early action should be to draw up a feasibility study which: • assesses the present financial position of each school and, in particular, the level of debt and other liabilities • identifies future demographic, social and market trends • provides an initial view of how complementary the cultures of the prospective partner schools may be, including senior management teams, common rooms and parent bodies

• considers the composition of the new Governing body • assesses the pupil roll of each school at the present date and sets a realistic fallout rate that can be withstood

How it might look

A wide range of business models might be contemplated, each involving different levels of complexity.

For example, if schools combine together in a group where each is operated as a separate business under common ownership within a family of schools, there may be minimal day-to-day impact on staff, parents and pupils. On the other hand, the merger of two schools on a single site will inevitably be more emotive and involve greater upheaval for the stakeholders.

There are also differences between commercial transactions and charity mergers. In an acquisition/disposal, one party (the ‘Buyer’) will acquire from the other (the ‘Seller’) the target school’s assets for a price.

On occasions, an acquisition may take the form of a share sale.

Even between charities, ‘merger’ is often a euphemism for ‘take-over’; invariably one of the merger partners will be more dominant in terms of size, control, asset value, geographical position, market strengths or some other key factor.

The legal considerations for a charitable merger and a school acquisition are quite different in terms of the approach, timetable, structure and legal processes.

There are, however, similarities in the practical approach required.

Initial discussions

Initial discussions are likely to be at a Chairman-to-Chairman level. Before proceeding beyond this stage, the parties should enter into a Confidentiality Agreement and an Exclusivity Agreement. The former will ensure that the discussions themselves – plus any commercially sensitive information released during the due diligence process

– remain confidential. The latter will ensure that the negotiations are exclusive of others.

Once the parties have reached broad agreement, they should enter into Heads of Terms which set out the agreed commercial terms and the proposed legal structure. Parties to a merger of charities should consider, negotiate and agree a Memorandum of Understanding which sets out a number of ‘soft issues’ in relation to the future operation of the merged school, such as its ethos, etc.

Due diligence

Due diligence is a vital step in any transaction. It is a process undertaken in order to find out as much about the other party as possible in order to assess whether sufficient ‘value’ exists to justify proceeding. It is also designed to ascertain whether there are any hidden liabilities and identify matters requiring further investigation. Ultimately, the exercise will determine whether or not to proceed.

In the case of a merger between two charitable schools the due diligence process should be ‘two way’. Each party will want to find out as much about the other as possible: one party will require some certainty that the assets of the ‘target’ school comfortably exceed its liabilities and the other party will want to be sure that it is transferring assets to an Winter 2021 | schoolmanagementplus.com | 17

HEADS & GOVERNORS

TOP TIPS Know your school

Have a common vision

Be clear-thinking and realistic about what kind of merger it is.The parties should agree whether respective strengths can be preserved and weaknesses shed.

Know your market

Form a clear picture of how the merged school will look at an early stage. Once the vision has been shared and agreed between parties, it becomes much easier to discuss matters of detail.

Be clear about the extent of market demand for the merged school.

Be realistic about the cost

Take parents and staff with you Ensure that there is support and commitment from parents and staff; this must never be taken for granted.

undertaking that is viable and commercially sound. In addition, an investigation will need to be undertaken to ensure that the merger is possible under charity law.

In the case of an acquisition, the process will be ‘one way’ (only being undertaken by the Buyer on the target school) and will be used to assess whether it is paying a fair price. If, having undertaken the process, the Buyer discovers facts or circumstances that cause it concern, it may seek to include specific provisions in any contract by means of warranties, indemnities and or financial retentions) to provide it with protection. Or it may seek a reduction in the purchase price.

Communication and PR

A good communication strategy is one of the key critical factors in determining the success of the merger. It is essential that the Head, governors or proprietor present a consistently positive outlook to staff, parents and pupils in order to ‘win hearts and minds’. The success of a merger can be jeopardised if the positions of parents, pupils and staff are not properly considered and addressed. We recommend appointing a specialist public relations consultant to assist in developing and promoting positive key messages about the merger.

The legal agreement

A legal agreement will need to be prepared to re ect the s eleton terms 18 | schoolmanagementplus.com | Winter 2021

Undertake a sensible analysis to be reasonably confident that the shortterm financial and management burden will be outweighed by longer-term benefits.

agreed in the Heads of Terms or Memorandum of Understanding. There is different terminology for this agreement which may be an Asset Purchase Agreement or Share Purchase Agreement in the case of an acquisition/disposal and a Merger Deed or Merger Agreement in the case of a merger between charities.

At a suitable point, provided that the documentation has been agreed, the legal agreement can be exchanged subject to a number of conditions.

In our experience this is the best time to announce the merger as the deal has already been ‘done’ and cannot readily be unravelled.

Once the agreed conditions have been met (these are likely to include DfE consent and TUPE consultations and possibly Charity Commission approval), legal completion can take place and the legal title in the assets will be transferred.

Resource pack

Transactions between schools have become common in the independent school sector but nevertheless many school leaders will only be involved in such a project once.

To help schools navigate the path and avoid the traps, VWV has worked with the ISC associations to produce a resource pack with more than 50 pages of guidance, checklists, timetables and templates. The pack was last updated in October 2020 to account for the challenges of the COVID crisis and is available free of charge from the ISC, your school associations or from VWV. ●

BARNEY NORTHOVER is a Partner at VWV (email: bnorthover@ vwv.co.uk or mobile: 07973 423 081) KENJI BATCHELOR is a Senior Associate. (email: kbatchelor@vwv.co.uk or mobile: 07384 251 898).

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MARKETING & ADMISSIONS

HAPPY UNION

Photos by Malvern St James

A SEAMLESS AND Fiona Meredith describes how she used brand heritage as a marketing tool to promote a sense of a shared past amongst alumnae when four schools merged to become Malvern St James, now one of the UK’s leading girls’ schools.

M

alvern St James Girls’ School (MSJ) is a girls’ day and boarding school set at the foot of the majestic Malvern Hills in Worcestershire. If you look at a plaque in the grand doorway that leads into our building, you will see that the school was opened in 2006 by the Duke of Gloucester. This may give the impression that we are a new school, not even into our third decade, but in fact nothing could be further from the truth. Our pedigree goes back to Victorian ngland, to the first cohort of trailbla ing women who founded girls’ schools to provide an education equal to that of the boys’ schools. And our founding schools were some of the biggest and most successful brands of their era.

A changing educational landscape Independent schools had proliferated in the small spa town of Malvern during the 18th and 19th centuries. In particular, several girls’ schools ourished and gained a reputation across the UK and internationally. Each had a niche, a specialism which gave it its unique identity: Malvern Girls’ College was known for its outstanding science education, St James’s

20 | schoolmanagementplus.com | Winter 2020

Out of every challenge comes a new wave of creativity

for its grand social connections (Princess Alice, the mother of the aforementioned Duke of Gloucester was educated here), Lawnside for its artistic tradition and association with George Bernard Shaw, and The Abbey School for its music.

Towards the latter part of the twentieth century, the schools landscape started to change. The boys’ schools were increasingly becoming co-ed, whilst some of the girls’ schools who wished to stay girls-only joined forces. In Malvern, the overall number of schools decreased, whilst the si e of the remaining schools increased.

This allowed them to offer more in the curriculum, particularly at GCSE and A Level, new and improved facilities, as well as more enrichment and bigger boarding communities with more-exciting schedules of weekend activities.

Four into one

Our founding schools followed this model.

In the late ‘70s and ‘90s respectively, The

Abbey School and Lawnside became part of St James’s School. In 2006, St James’s and Malvern Girls’ College, both strong brands in their own right with slightly different markets – the former with a very strong day girl market, the latter with a much bigger boarding base – merged to become Malvern St James Girls’ School.

The school has gone from strength to strength, with a strong pupil roll and a reputation for excellent value-added attainment, enrichment and pastoral provision.

At the time of the merger, the governors and school management worked incredibly hard to make the union as seamless and happy as possible.

Energies were focused on giving pupils and parents reassurance, a warm welcome and an immediate sense of belonging. This was achieved successfully and within a relatively short period of time.

Creating brand heritage

From a marketing and engagement point of view, it has given us an interesting challenge. A new brand was created and it has been our job to create brand heritage and to showcase our

MARKETING & ADMISSIONS 150-year pedigree. Out of every challenge comes a new wave of creativity and fresh perspective; an opportunity to do something different, untethered by the way things have always been done.

And looking at our wider community – our 4,000 strong alumnae network – how would we bring all of these women together? They are a valuable support network: from careers mentoring to volunteering and donating to our bursary fund, they give to our community in so many ways.

When I joined MSJ in 2014, as I got under the skin of the various founding schools, and talked to alumnae, I could see that there were many common threads to the individual schools. In fact, there was much more that united them than separated them. And there was one thing in particular that was the backbone of them all: the aspiration and achievement nurtured by an all-girls’ Malvern education.

As well as bringing the alumnae together through this unifying message, it was also my aim to demonstrate how their school experience related to the modern-day school experience in Malvern St James. Again, there was so much commonality: academic rigour, enrichment, a sense of giving back to the Malvern community, the bonds of a boarding school, grounded-ness, music, drama, sport, non-gendered academic subjects (we have never struggled to get girls doing Maths, Further Maths, Physics etc at A Level).

What I was looking to achieve was straightforward in essence. But what I hadn’t counted on (perhaps naively) was the ingrained competitiveness and tribalism that existed between the schools. After all, for well over a century they had been rivals on the sports field, in debating competitions, in academic prowess and more.

Giving each school an equal stake

To achieve my aims, I needed to create an alumnae society which worked for everyone, where each school had an equal stake and members felt connected to each other and the new school. I also wanted to show current students, parents and prospective parents the pedigree of MSJ.

Brand heritage is important in the independent schools’ sector: a certain part of our audience is buying into that sense of tradition and longevity. It offers reassurance in an increasingly tumultuous world. Our founding schools had been set up by trailblazing women – the innovators and disruptors of their time (Dominic Cummings, eat your heart out!) – the original champions of female equality. This was a story that chimed with the national mood and a story that needed to be told.

are still doing London-Paris charity cycles to raise money for deserving causes.

None of them were braggers, none of them thought that they were special; in their own words, they just kept at things and embraced a challenge when it was

Inspiring women

presented to them. (I think actually they were being very self-deprecating, but this was typical of their style.) And it got me thinking that if I found them inspiring and relatable, then why wouldn’t others, too?

These women were a shot of positivethinking, can-do mentality. I liked them and I knew that MSJ students and other Old Girls would too.

And this is how a small seed of an idea turned into the Malvern Alumnae 100 project, for which Malvern St James has just won the Brand Communications and Marketing award in the Independent Schools of the Year Awards 2020.

I’ve always loved my job: I am that cliché – ‘a people person’. Maybe it’s my Irish roots, maybe it’s just natural curiosity, but I love to meet people and know their story. So as I settled into my role and met more and more people, I spoke to so many women who I found totally inspiring.

That could be because they were the first female Dean of St Bartholomew’s Medical School (Dame Professor Lesley Rees), or because they went from a 30-something housewife to the top of the advertising business in the space of a decade (Gay Haines), or because at the age of 80 they

There was much more that united them than separated them

MARKETING & ADMISSIONS

Malvern Alumnae 100

hen first started thin ing about it, it was really just a means of telling inspirational stories which would have resonance with current pupils and past pupils. ut then could see the incidental spin offs these individual stories would tell of our chool’s history, and show that an all girls education is all about empowering women and giving them the confidence to believe and achieve. The project would bind the founding schools together in our ld irls’ ssociation, ma ing them appreciate the many remar able women each school produced. t would not only spea to our current community, but also to prospective families and the world at large.

The central element of the project is a permanent exhibition in chool of our most remar able and talented alumnae. upporting this is a programme of uest pea er slots where alumnae connect with our girls to do lectures, wor shops and mentoring.

The ma eup of the alvern lumnae is diverse in terms of age range, interests and specialisms, but the philosophy at its centre is female empowerment and inspirational female role models. rom r Caroline ucas , former leader of the reen arty alvern irls’ College alumna , ame Clara urse, Chairman of C t ames’s alumna , hyllida loyd, director of ‘ amma ia ’ awnside alumna , to rsula artin, the first female professor in t ndrew’s niversity’s year history bbey alumna , there is no ‘type’ here.

There is someone, and a career path, to indle the interest of every student. t also demonstrates where a good education ta es you.

Individual stories would tell of our school’s history

Powerful engagement

t has been a powerful engagement tool current students and families have loved seeing this living, breathing history of . t is normal to see parents and girls and staff, too standing in front of the exhibition boards, eagerly reading about alumnae. t is also an excellent mar eting

tool for prospective families as they loo at our website and then tour the building. ne gets a real sense of a school’s values, its ambition and ethos from the students it produces and how they use their talents. t has also had an impact on admissions feedbac girls have stated that they applied specifically because they felt inspired by this campaign. rospective parents have commented that they didn’t realise that had this history. Current pupils refer to it constantly. e are really delighted that a small idea to showcase our inspiring alumnae has snowballed into a major strand of our mar eting and communications strategy. ●

FIONA MEREDITH is Director of Development at Malvern St James Girls’ School. She has previously worked as a board director of London marketing agency Foresight, and as Director of European ublicity for the film division of Disney/ Buena Vista.

Winter 2021 | schoolmanagementplus.com | 23

VIRTUAL PERFORMANCES:

MAXIMISING YOUR AUDIENCE

Norwich School

Zoe MacDougall looks at how online artistic performances have proved an unexpectedly effective mar eting tool during the pandemic.

C

OVID-19 limitations have put a stop to many traditional outreach and partnership events in independent schools. But a bit of creative thinking in music, dance and drama departments across the sector has resulted in a whole new world of live streaming, recording and online audiences. In 2020, innovative ensemble and solo performances leapt out of phones, tablets and screens as schools sought to reach out to their stakeholders online. The impact of this new concept of performance events in schools has evoked a re-think in marketing strategies and platforms, as performance in schools goes big and goes home in a virtual world.

Christmas without Nativity plays

Pre-COVID-19, who could have imagined a Christmas without the pre-prep Nativity play and the sequence of little 24 | schoolmanagementplus.com | Winter 2021

waves to Mummy and Daddy from each sheep and shepherd as the warmest of audiences files in Traditional ativity plays, festivals, concerts, dance shows, musicals, school plays and overseas tours have all been seriously challenged for the past two terms. Parents, both current and prospective, have been unable to enjoy their usual access to school grounds and buildings as audiences.

However, despite the loss of live performance as we know it, schools have been bursting with innovation and new audiences have been found online. As the schools’ curriculum migrated to online teaching and learning in March 2020, so did the extra-curricular music, dance and drama. Performance events have still been

a big part of school life.

Winners of the Independent Schools of the Year 2020 award for Performing Arts, Wells Cathedral School in Somerset has been prolific in its creative output during the pandemic. The school has live-streamed its Popular and Commercial Music Concert, and its twice-weekly series of lunchtime concerts, reaching online audiences of up to 1,000 people at a time.

Dancers have visited care homes and performed in the gardens for residents to watch from their windows.

Mark Stringer, the Director of Music, explains that drawing on peripatetic music coaches and in-house teachers gives the school a huge range of knowledge and experience to fuel its performance output.

Young people have something to communicate, something to say. To validate it, you have to be able to see and hear it MARK STRINGER, DIRECTOR OF MUSIC, WELLS CATHEDRAL SCHOOL

MARKETING & ADMISSIONS And the students themselves frequently come up with new performance platforms and inventive ways of collaborating with fellow performers.

Use of technology can often seem like a bit of a generation game. Some teachers may well have looked with horror at the list of apps and social media platforms recommended for a successful, lockeddown, virtual education. Meantime the student generation looked at the same list with glee. If students can teach a trick or two to their teachers in this COVIDdefined, technological age, then this may herald a new style of collaboration as well as of performance.

It’s possible that we may even begin to see changes in the traditional curriculum, with subjects such as music technology entering the mainstream. Maybe the student performers of the COVID-19 cohort will be the savvy agents and online producers of the future.

similar initiatives all tell a story about the participating schools.

The Marketing Department at Norwich School has never been busier – online. In the summer, the school shared its virtual arts festival, Gather 2020, on YouTube, comprising an engaging collection of performances which culminated in a live-streamed Gala Night. In the autumn, replacing whole-school events, solo performances and student-led artistic initiatives found digital outlets. Beth Gammage, the Head of Marketing, comments that, since lockdown, everyone is thinking in a different way.

People are embracing the digital world.

Beth witnessed an increased level of collaboration between teaching and non-teaching staff as performance went digital and a wider skill-set was needed to reach virtual audiences. Her response to COVID-19 limitations has been exciting and inventive, filming, recording,uploading and sharing the school’s many and varied performances.

Reaching out

Disenfranchised no more

Student glee

Without a doubt schools are still performing. But ensuring that this work is seen and heard by their stakeholders requires creative thinking by the marketing and admissions departments. School performances often feed directly into marketing with engaging stories and imagery, and many schools also make use of arts collaborations to promote their brand ethos through showcasing the choices they make around arts projects on a local, national and international scale.

Participation in European choir tours, the national Shakespeare in Schools project, community festivals and other

There has always been a certain disenfranchisement for parents without a local base who are unable to be at their children’s school for those pivotal moments in the school year. Similarly, those who work from home rather than at a distant office have commonly had greater exibility to carve out time for school events. Now, through the agency of the pandemic, parents wherever they are have greater opportunity to engage with ‘their’ school through the step change in virtual performances. For many marketing teams, this is a dream come true.

The word on the street

Wells Cathedral School

Looking forward into 2021 and beyond there are no post-pandemic certainties.

Effective and relevant hyperlinks embedded in Twitter feeds, in-the-moment Instagram connections, recordings on

TOP TIPS

for performance marketing nclude short film cli s on the school Twitter feed where they can be shared, creating a second wave of communication • Place video content on the school website which plays when a user lands on the homepage • Use tailored performance content in virtual open day presentations • Take virtual performances with you out of the pandemic demand, live-streamed performances and podcasts look set to take on the traditional role of the glossy, printed prospectus. Seeing is believing. Secondslong performance clips which are watched on a phone and instantly shared with family and friends can be a powerful tool, in uencing the school’s word on the street reputation quickly and effectively. lready schools’ reputations are in uenced by informal performance clips which are shared and liked or cancelled by their students and parents. The pandemic has taught marketing teams to harness their school’s virtual performing arts content and deploy it ever more effectively.

Ground rules are essential. Schools may want to review safeguarding policies in line with a wider and more frequent online presence. They will also need to consider digital rights and licenses for virtual performances as they plan live, online or blended events going forward.

School performances, locked down or otherwise, are still at the heart of our school communities. In the future, successful marketing departments seem likely to be those which embed their school’s performances into their digital recruitment strategies. ●

ZOE MACDOUGALL is an educational commentator with extensive teaching experience in the performing arts.

Zoe also contributes to timewithmytween.blog

Winter 2021 | schoolmanagementplus.com | 25

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MARKETING & ADMISSIONS

FROM OPEN DAYS TO

VIRTUAL SCHOOL EXPERIENCES Lockdown forces many schools to host their open days online with varying degrees of success. But has COVID- changed the rules for finding a school’s future students asks Sophie the Head of School Partnerships at VirtualSchoolExperiences.com

C

OVID-19 has turned all our worlds upside down over the last nine-plus months, and like so many areas, education has had to adapt, fast. Notably, independent schools rose to the challenges posed by the virus, upping their game in digital delivery of classes, homework, and general support for their students. Open days were also quickly converted from a time-honoured inperson event, to virtual replicas, complete with Zoom calls, glossy videos, and even online 360-degree tours.

With a slate of vaccines looking likely to be approved, there’s finally light at the end of the pandemic tunnel – but will virtual open days disappear as lockdowns lift and life slowly gets closer to normal?

There are three good reasons to think that virtual open days are here to stay, and moreover, that they’ll become an ever

more vital tool for first class independent schools to demonstrate their credentials to increasingly judicious parents.

Showcasing your school on your parents’ terms

Even before COVID-19, the digital world was disrupting traditional forms of choosing between different services. Like all of us, prospective parents looking at independent schools expect a wealth of information to be available to them when, where and in whatever format they prefer – and on any and all devices that they wish to make use of. User-generated content is expected as well in order to provide the sense of authenticity and ‘wordof-mouth’ recommendation that often informs discussion in-person. With all that extra content re uired, fitting it all into a traditional website without overwhelming a visitor can be a tall order.

School marketing teams started off by responding to the challenges of the pandemic with basic open days on Zoom or Microsoft Teams and then gradually began to hone these resources into virtual school open experiences as their

ir a c oo e erience are de ni e e re no or ri no e re a rea a e c an in o en or o den recr i en and even or ndin e ri aff

HAILEYBURY CHAIRMAN, IAN HUNT

MARKETING & ADMISSIONS potential became apparent. True virtual school experiences provide a structured, personalised way to experience information-rich content in full, and one that can be instantly accessible with a single click. They’re available whenever a prospective parent is ready to do the detailed work of investigating their child’s future choice of school, and often long before they might be ready to attend a ‘fixed’ live event, whether in person or online. Hence, your school can be showcasing its ethos and facilities in detail while a parent’s views on which school to choose are very much still forming.

Staying international while staying home

Before COVID-19, some international parents would be willing to y halfway around the world to fully get to grips with the school choices on offer for their child’s education. Now, far fewer will be prepared to do so. International travel, for all sorts of reasons, has become more complicated and that change brings with it a diminished reach for schools which do nothing to go out to the parents who are no longer as willing to come to them. Dialling into a poor-quality video call in place of an in-person tour is not something overseas parents are likely to welcome as the sole tool on offer for understanding the values and capabilities of a school they wish to learn about.

A full virtual school experience can also help to galvanise an independent school’s agent network, allowing them to work more effectively with the school to reach the right parents and to motivate those parents to prioritise looking at a particular school over the others on their longlist. It’s also a way to keep a school’s shop window open 24/7, 365 days a year, and wherever its prospective parents are loacted.

Not just one day, but just for you

static website, a fixed schedule of live webinars, and the same pre-recorded videos for all visitors, no matter how well produced, are unlikely to attract attention or differentiate one school from another given that they represent 28 | schoolmanagementplus.com | Winter 2021

Our virtual open day is the most unique and innovative tool we’ve incorporated since we built the website! HEAD OF ADMISSIONS the minimum standard already in place across all independent schools. To stand apart, the content and tools required for truly effective virtual school experiences often need to be reimagined. A broad range of videos, interviews, audio clips, and interactive content such as personalised parent tours – even QR codes or Augmented Reality tools – are required to stand out from the crowd.

Parents are growing to expect a dynamic and immersive experience, personalised just for them, each and every time they visit your website. They want to engage with your school over an extended period of time, at their own pace, rather than fitting in with your schedule or event budget. Personalisation isn’t just important for the parents. The specific data you can secure on how parents engage with your online assets as part of a virtual school experience can

help you segment them by level of interest.

Many things have changed since COVID-19 hit, and many more will be sure to change in the months and years after it finally dwindles, as the health and economic ramifications wor their ways through our interconnected world.

Uncertainty is here to stay, the landscape for finding the right students has changed too, and parents will necessarily become more cautious and circumspect as they decide on the best path for their children’s future education. But whatever else may change, the essential need to give your school’s future parents the best possible introduction to what they can expect for their children will remain. Precisely because they help to bridge this timeless need and the changed world in which we now live, virtual school experiences are sure to be here to stay. ●

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a powerful and engaging virtual tour experience should be at the top of every Independent School’s agenda.

It is clear that these experiences are here to stay, so cutting corners is not an option - here at Quantock we have been helping schools to get it right!

Ask yourself - do we stand out from the crowd? Do our facilities look their best? Do we have a compelling story to tell, and do we communicate this with clarity and purpose?

Virtual tours enable you to expand your reach and engage with new and existing audiences, whilst also letting your school brand shine so you connect with the hearts and minds of your audience.

Quantock are experts at creating powerful brands through compelling storytelling and engaging content, and we can integrate a variety of virtual tour experiences into your existing digital platforms.

Whatever your starting point, we’ll help you to understand how to unearth your school’s inner spirit, supercharge your brand, and promote your school with creativity and flare.

brand & Creative communications E: hello@quantock.com T: 01823 327532

www.quantock.com 30 | schoolmanagementplus.com | Winter 2021

SCAN ME! Read our full article where we share our insights on how to create and enhance your schools’ virtual tour experience.

PARTNERS

T

SPEAK

AMCIS CEO, Tory Gillingham, looks back to the challenges of 2020 and highlights how mar eting and admissions staff have needed to adapt adapt and adapt again to deliver their programmes online.

I

n a short survey conducted at the end of 2020, AMCIS members were as ed to re ect on their wor ing life during the unprecedented times that they had been through to date with the coronavirus pandemic. t was very apparent that those wor ing in admissions, mar eting and communications, li e all those wor ing within the independent sector, had had a very challenging year. dapt, adapt and then adapt again was very much the theme of the responses that we received. embers spo e of adapting and con uering oom and icrosoft Teams, in double uic time, to produce virtual summer pen ays that were attended, in some cases, by prospective pupils from around the world not something that would have happened on a normal aturday morning event . nduction days were successfully adapted to online events, with new pupils participating in group acclimatisation activities via video lin s, meeting fellow pupils and teachers.

The biggest challenge, which continues into , was not being able to host on site visits. ith only short windows of time available between loc downs and other restrictions when prospective families could be shown around campuses we saw the rise of the ‘virtual tour’. These came in many different forms but each one tailored to showcase their school in the best possible way. s the second wave of the virus too a hold during the autumn term, attention turned to scholarship and assessment days and how these could ta e place. gain, normal procedures were adapted

assessment days were hosted online, with oom invigilators, and some prospective pupils’ sat the exams in their current schools. nnovation continues as write.

Support network

Throughout the course of the pandemic C members have come together, albeit virtually, in a way have never seen before. The support, encouragement and sharing of ideas and nowledge has, in itself, been unprecedented and humbling.

The wee long dmissions Connect Event, attended by record numbers of delegates, included a series of ‘warts and all’ presentations on a range of loc down events and measures.

Into 2021

third national loc down and the closing of schools at the beginning of will bring even more challenges to the C membership, but we are already seeing the results of the hard wor , effort, resilience and adaptability which mar ed . n many cases, members schools are reporting record numbers of en uiries and registrations. irtual events are continuing. efinitely not replacing the onsite visits, when allowed, but complementing them. any members have commented that they find this area of their wor , with the new s ills re uired and learnt, exciting and rewarding.

2021 AMCIS Connect Live

A virtual, online event, developed s ecifically or those in ol ed in admissions, marketing and communications, 2021 AMCIS onnect i e o ers a to -class irtual con erence coming direct to your home or o fice digital screens, including: a rogramme ac ed ith highly topical webinars, panel discussions and roundtable sessions to enlighten in orm moti ate enthuse and ins ire • interactive networking opportunities, including group and one-to-one discussions an e tensi e range o e hibitions including meet the e hibitor sessions. o find out more and ensure access all areas or this first-class e ent isit the ebsite www.amcis.co.uk was indeed challenging and it is already loo ing as if could be e ually so, but with the ability to adapt, those challenges can be con uered and deliver successful outcomes across the sector. ●

TORY GILLINGHAM has been the AMCIS CEO for years and had previously wor ed as mar eting and development director at two independent schools in the north of England.

inter

| schoolmanagementplus.com |

Photos by Toby Philips Photography

SECURING

BRIGHT FUTURES

Hugo Middlemas describes the successful bursary fundraising campaign run by Christ’s Hospital in a time of unprecedented disruption and considers what school development teams can learn from challenges of the past.

I

s your school exploring how its bursary programme can be funded in the face of today’s many financial pressures ave you seen levels of hardship emerge within your school community unknown for many years s it your ambition to start or extend a bursary programme in order to help Do you want to increase your school’s charitable impact and drive social mobility hether you have a evelopment function or rely on volunteer led fundraising, you will have many considerations. hat are the merits of redirecting existing fundraising activity to bursaries ow do you fit a bursary fundraising message within your existing communications ho will be most li ely to respond This article shares the experience of managing a new bursary fundraising campaign, launched four months before the pandemic but cognisant of the already worsening conditions for children from socially and economically challenging bac grounds. t the time of writing the campaign is exceeding income and participation expectations.

Challenging times – new opportunities?

While independent schools respond to the huge financial and logistical challenges brought by the pandemic, many have simultaneously needed to support families facing hardship. rom increased outreach 32 | schoolmanagementplus.com | Winter 2021

activity to hardship appeals and the provision of e uipment for home learning, schools responded swiftly and admirably in the early stages of the crisis. ome have also needed to reassess means tested bursary levels in families’ changing circumstances. t Christ’s ospital, the average means tested bursary has been increased from 83% to 86% – a significant financial impact given the bursaries in place this year. s many schools experienced with their hardship appeals in , challenging times can lead to a rallying of support from parents, alumni and others.

Channelling people’s response to a threat to an institution and the children it is there to support, while avoiding panic, is familiar territory for those involved in fundraising. The s ill comes in maintaining the uplift in interest.

There is no doubt that the pandemic has increased awareness and empathy for those most affected – whether families now struggling to get by or those already facing significant vulnerability. This is a time when parents, alumni and other sta eholders may appreciate the value of establishing, maintaining or extending a bursary programme. urther, the experience of home based learning will have awa ened a new level of interest amongst parents and alumni in teaching and learning and an appreciation

DEVELOPMENT

Many schools have needed to support families facing hardship of the particular advantages available to those experiencing independent provision.

As argued by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) in the New Normal: The Future of Education after COVID-19 published in October 2020, this is an opportunity to reimagine education with a re-focus on preparing children for life and embracing the power of technology – areas of great strength in the independent sector, with increased access through bursary programmes a powerful tool to address inequalities both inside and outside the classroom.

COVID-19 has not been a great leveller: disproportionately it has affected the lowest paid, those on the frontline and those already facing social disadvantage.

The unprecedented disruption to teaching and learning is likely to have widened the already stark attainment gap in the UK, with significant implications for educational and social mobility.

Creating Bright Futures

Christ’s Hospital is somewhat unusual in the scale of its bursary programme and therefore in the profile of its alumni and parents. With almost all alumni and 75% of current pupils benefiting from significant means-tested bursaries, there is a passionate commitment to maintaining and growing the bursary programme to help drive UK social mobility. This said, the limited financial means of parents and often modest disposable income of alumni requires high levels of donation participation for the bursary programme to continue. There is also particular reliance on the school’s high value ‘child sponsorship’ philanthropic product, which sees ‘Governors’

making a gift equivalent to the full fees or a proportion of fees and supporting a specific pupil during their time at Christ’s Hospital.

It was against this background that, in 2019, Christ’s Hospital considered its response to an emerging trend of falling donation participation – the number of donors dropping by 20% since 2017 – and increasing evidence that social mobility was stagnating in the UK. It was clear that new energy needed to be injected into our communications – and the worsening UK situation provided both context and urgency.

With a number of ongoing fundraising activities in play, from bursary to capital, a unifying, mission-focused, time-limited campaign was seen as the best fit. The resulting ‘Bright Futures’ campaign had an ambition to raise £1.5m in two years towards bursaries for high-need children, with a principal focus on alumni and current/former parents.

The launch of the Bright Futures campaign in September 2019 used traditional methods, with an appeal mailing to all alumni and parents. What differed from previous appeals was the urgency of

the language used and a ramping up of the imagery. The results were rapid, with over £300,000 donated and pledged in response to the launch mailing – more than five times as much as any mailing appeal in the past 20 years or so.

Maintaining the campaign’s momentum for two years through highly engaging communications across multiple platforms was critical, as was having enough opportunities for asking. Giving Tuesday in December 2019 – the world day of giving – provided the next vehicle. All expectations were blown away with £200,000 donated, with half of all donations coming from alumni and parents who had never given before. Christ’s Hospital’s previous record income for Giving Tuesday had been £10,000.

The arrival of the pandemic in early 2020 coincided with advanced planning for the next stage of Bright Futures – Christ’s ospital’s first fully integrated appeal across mail and digital platforms, due to launch in May. The argument for more bursary places was strengthening by the day, but many pupils’ parents were facing increased hardship and alumni spoke of growing financial and employment challenges. Many voices sounded caution – this was surely the wrong time to send an appeal when so many feared for their futures?

Winter 2021 | schoolmanagementplus.com | 33

DEVELOPMENT

Deep breaths were a en a e r responses to the appeal were awaited Much consultation and further strengthening of the campaign message, acknowledging the extreme challenges that pupils’ families and others like them faced, helped navigate this dilemma.

Ultimately launching in June, deep breaths were ta en as the first responses to the appeal were awaited. nce again, the results were astonishing. further £200,000 in donations and pledges and higher engagement with social media and other digital activity than ever before. n the eve of iving Tuesday , the right utures campaign stood at a healthy . m against the . m target. mportantly, the campaign has helped achieve a increase in donation participation compared to the previous year. any lessons have been learned along the way – the importance of being transparent with alumni and parents; focusing on what stakeholders most cherish about your school and articulating a bursary programme’s relevance to the challenges young people in the UK are facing today.

Is now the right time to fundraise for bursary programmes?

ill history repeat itself ac in , the world of evelopment, li e many 34 | schoolmanagementplus.com | Winter 2021

professions, was reeling from the impact of the global financial crisis of .

An 11% fall in the value of donations by individuals in the led to high profile cuts to charitable activity and concerns about the future. Today, as schools and charities grapple with the lasting impact of the pandemic, will we see a similar fall in donation income? Will launching new fundraising initiatives for bursary programmes be a viable option?

Stories of major charities losing large proportions of their fundraising income have been in the news for some months now. hile the Charities id oundation reported a increase in donations by individuals in the first half of , will the wave of donations to NHS charities and C related initiatives be sustained or will 2021 see a decline in donations as in 2009?

Returning to 2009 and, digging below the surface, one notices that some organisations experienced a sustained increase in donations during the time of the global financial crisis and its long shadow. hat were these organisations doing and what can schools learn from them, particularly in terms of bursary programmes? irst and foremost, those organisations that grew fundraising income in 2009 were investing in the supporter experience.

They focused on the needs and interests of their supporters, inspired them to get involved through sharing stories of impact and ma ing engagement easy. espite the temptation to batten down the hatches and cut activity, these organisations continued to communicate openly with their supporters and helped them to feel part of something bigger.

What does this mean for your school in The pandemic has been a catalyst for altruism, with many people searching for ways to create positive change. ut how can this desire to help others be harnessed when so many charities and other organisations are facing crises themselves? believe that with the right engagement, independent schools are perfectly equipped to help their alumni and parents create lasting change at this challenging time. our school will have an extraordinary bond with many of your alumni and parents that can inspire confidence. They will understand intuitively the benefits that a bursary at your school can provide a young person who is facing challenges in their life. erhaps this is the ideal moment to bring together the needs of our society, the peaked altruism of your alumni and parents and the transformative power of education? ●

HUGO MIDDLEMAS is Development Director at Christ’s Hospital and a Trustee of the Windlesham Foundation Trust.

He has nearly 25 years’ Development experience across charities, schools and the NHS alongside a background in industry.

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BURSARS

RISK IS ALL

AROUND US 2020 pushed risk to the top of the agenda for school leaders and was a cause of much stress and anxiety but technology continues to ride to the rescue and is playing an ever-more powerful role in its mitigation and management. This is a trend we should all be watching, John Fraser, Head of Education, Marsh explains.

C

OVID-19 gave independent schools throughout the country their biggest test yet when it comes to risk management and safety.

School leaders adapted at pace in the face of the unexpected to keep their schools, staff, and students safe; and despite the challenges that created, there are some inspiring learnings coming from the pressure to innovate.

As we look to build operational resilience for independent schools in the aftermath, many independent school leaders are asking similar questions.

‘How do I continue to make safety and risk management a priority, without increasing my overheads?’ ‘How do I improve efficiency, without compromising on safety?’ ‘How do I continue to adhere to ever-changing government guidance, without adding additional pressure to staff?’

As schools are again challenged to do more with less, we are looking to those already leading the way in risk management and mitigation by leveraging technology in their schools.

36 | schoolmanagementplus.com | Winter 2021

Why is risk management a pain point for today’s schools?

The cost when things go wrong can be catastrophic: not only in terms of incidents that may occur, but the knock-on impact on a school’s reputation too.

However, it’s rarely one single action or failure that results in a full-scale incident.

In the risk industry, we typically see risk as the sum of many factors: the little things that weren’t seen and weren’t escalated to the right person. Things that many of us simply don’t know to look for.

For the SMT, Bursar, COO or even the Head, having eyes on those small parts of their operation – especially in a large ecosystem of multiple sites or even a group of schools – is near-impossible.

Real-time visibility continues to be a huge challenge; but at the same time, the demand for data-backed insurance risk profiling is rising.

In a hardening insurance market and post-COVID era, information must be leveraged from school sites to protect against rising premiums and reduce risk.

Information must be leveraged to protect against rising premiums But capturing it, surfacing it, and bringing it together to generate management information for the business – in a way that can be viewed favourably by insurers when an insurance broker presents a school’s profile – is a demand many struggle with.

Hamwic Education Trust: A case study

Hamwic Education Trust has answered this challenge with the support of technology.

With 31 schools in its portfolio, the Trust had a recognisable operational challenge: coordinating the management of audits, checks, and compliance requirements across multiple sites with limited resources and entrenched paper-based processes. The result was inefficiencies, poor data, and a lac of visibility overall.

Deploying iAuditor, a digital inspections app, has proven the solution the Trust needed. The exibility and logic of the mobile first app enables states fficer, Graeme Staddon, to design highly tailored templates to an almost granular level, mapping the unique layout, needs and ris profile of each individual school site.

Anyone completing an audit or check is guided by the app, ensuring no detail – right down to each firepoint, light fitting, or electricity socket – is missed. The Trust has created over 900 different templates within the app to date to meet the diverse and unique needs of its schools: and capture that all-important data.

In-depth reports are automatically generated and digitally surfaced within the platform, giving management full visibility across school sites and utilising the data to surface trends, issues, or insights. At any given moment, Hamwic Education Trust can identify its priorities or outstanding issues, using the information to make data-driven decisions and shape best practice throughout the Trust.

Improving compliance and reducing risk

Quantifying and demonstrating a genuine risk management culture demands meaningful data. For Hamwic Education Trust, this has come in the form of scheduling of checks and inspections.

The ability to schedule either repeat or one-off inspections and push those to individual sites from a central point has driven up accountability across the Trust. ach school nows exactly what needs to be done and when; inspections are time and date-stamped electronically, alerting management if anything has been missed or where additional support is needed.

Mitigating risk by taking all the necessary preventative measures, all of which can be proven and demonstrated through analytics and reporting, goes to the heart of risk management.

As information has accumulated over time, the Trust has been able to build up an invaluable data pool and can consequently now move from being reactive to proactive and predictive.

Democratising safety and risk management

C too health and safety out of the hands of senior management like never before. s the first responders on the ground, school staff needed to be empowered to take an active role in safety

and encouraged to alert management to potential issues or observations before they escalated to the point of an incident.

Leveraging technology that can be made readily available on staff devices such as a tablet or phone is crucial to achieving this.

Removing the pain of paperwork to be manually completed, submitted, reviewed and filed with a digital tool that is easy to use can overcome some of the biggest objections from staff. Not only does it save time, one of the scarcest school resources, but it gets that information escalated to the right person when it matters most.

Technology alone can’t eliminate risk: but it has a powerful role to play in shifting those micro behaviours that have a significant impact on reducing it.

Empowering our schools and their staff to feed information from the point of risk upwards transfers ownership and drives awareness, improving safety at every level.

That saves schools time, money and anxiety.

What more can a school leader ask?! ●

JOHN FRASER leads Marsh’s UK Education Practice and has over 30 years’ experience working in the insurance industry. John is particularly passionate about the role insurance and risk management can play in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of pupils and staff.

Marsh’s Education Practice is working closely with creators of risk management software, SafetyCulture, who are seeing promising results for school clients using their agship tool i uditor. Every arsh education client regardless of si e has free access to ris management software via i uditor and the exclusive Marsh risk management expertise contained within it.

Winter 2021 | schoolmanagementplus.com | 37

Confident to be Different

People

Personality

Performance

Our people are key to our success; they work with pride and enthusiasm. We encourage teamwork; reward innovation; and celebrate difference, creativity and partnership. Our clients, customers and catering teams are central to what drives the way we work – their opinion matters to us.

Our personality shines through in everything that we do.

Passion, focus and creativity ensure we deliver on our promise to prepare and serve fresh, delicious food consistently and distinctively.

Our teams understand what is expected and are supported to achieve the best results consistently. Continuous improvement is key – we regularly challenge and review our standards so our clients can be confident that we will meet their expectations and enhance the reputation of their school.

For a personal and no obligation review of your Catering services please contact Kate Rolland at kate.rolland@palmerhowells.co.uk Or visit our website: www.palmerhowells.co.uk

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Ready to join Tracy Shand? Email : info@simplyboarding.com 38 | schoolmanagementplus.com | Winter 2021

BURSARS

Natalie Arestis talks to the ‘incredible Bella Henry’, the manager of Notting Hill & Ealing High School’s highly regarded Catering Department.

F

ood is incredibly important at Notting Hill & Ealing High School, GDST (NHEHS). When I asked what we missed about school during lockdown, students and staff mentioned the amazing food produced by the incredible Bella Henry (pictured right), our Catering Manager. Bella runs an extremely imaginative and efficient food enterprise and leads a itchen that fills many with pride as well as nutrition!

With over 1,000 meals daily to produce, the NHEHS menu is huge and stocked full with all the variety required for a healthy

The impact of COVID-19 has been huge

palette – as well as some legendary recipes which have stood the test of time.

The result is a blend of the adventurous and the traditional with a level of choice second to none.

Each day brings a colourful display of healthy food. A daily menu includes choices designed to tantalise and introduce exciting new avours, encouraging our girls from age four all the way to 18 to develop a positive and adventurous relationship with food. The menu rotates every three weeks which keeps it exciting. Unlike many independent schools, NHEHS runs its own kitchen, employing its own staff.

Meanwhile, Bella works tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that those girls with dietary requirements (e.g. vegan or

Photos by NHEHS

THE HEART OF THE SCHOOL

gluten free) and those with allergies are able to enjoy as much variety as their peers.

And with every themed School event, such as Science Week, the kitchen gets creative dishing up surprise after surprise.

Creativity, choice and collaboration are the key ingredients of a healthy palette at NHEHS making lunchtime one of the most exciting times of the school day. een to find out more behind the workings of this enormous operation, I asked Bella to share some of her secrets with me.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your career and what led you to become Catering Manager at NHEHS. I started working in a bar and then was poached by Esporta Health and Leisure Club to run their food and beverage department where I gained my catering – and crucially – management experience.

I joined NHEHS in 2004. At the time, NHEHS was looking to completely redesign and remodel the kitchen and securing that change needed direction and inspiration. It was half its size back then – and, if you can imagine this, there were carpets in the dining room!

If kitchens are the heart of a home, hen you ha e defini ely c ea ed something equivalent at NHEHS. How do you work with SLT to deliver an e ficien and e ec i e se ice We have an operations meeting every Monday which is made up of SLT members from both our Junior and Winter 2021 | schoolmanagementplus.com | 39

BURSARS

Senior Schools. It also includes our premises manager, DFO and the marketing department. We discuss events, logistics relating to how the dining room is set up and any changes we need to make. I work separately with the DFO and Finance anage on budgeting and staffing he budget is reviewed on a monthly basis.

Given the catering department plays such a vital role in school life, what are your guiding principles in designing a menu?

Quality, balance, variety, with a focus on sourcing food locally and being environmentally friendly. I can’t tell you the hours I spend quality-checking all the food we purchase. I try to use local suppliers and small businesses as much as possible.

It’s important to support our local community and I can pop in and check their premises are clean and hygienic.

Ensuring that our girls have a balanced diet is imperative, so I make sure each meal e ects this hateve thei dieta needs or preference. We have introduced tempeh for example in our vegan meals, which provides a brilliant source of protein. A system of bands worn by our Junior School girls helps us ensure the correct food products are given; yellow bands for allergies, green bands for vegetarians and pink bands for religious dietary requirements.

I work hard to make sure our meals are e citing and va ied We find inspi ation from all cultures. Offering variety on the salad ba is also massivel impo tant he girls love olives – we use 5kg olives per day, sometimes more!

I try to use local suppliers and small businesses as much as possible One of the more unique aspects of the way you work is your involvement with the Food Committee. How involved do the girls actually get in shaping the menu and the catering service more generally? e he ood ommittee pla s a huge pa t in shaping the menu he gi ls feedbac is so important to ensuring the menu satisfies all ne of the gi ls commented at my last meeting, “I like attending this meeting as I know we are listened to, action is always taken and we see the changes”.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the way you work; what sort of changes have you had to make to ensure the catering machine still functions? he impact of has been huge mainly from a logistical perspective. We have completel emoved self se vice he catering team now serves all food unless it is pre-wrapped. I have completely changed team members’ roles and daily tasks to ensure they are keeping two metres apart.

We are sanitising more and preparing pre-wrapped cutlery. I have designed a new layout for the kitchen with a one way in and way out system, marking the oo s and alls ith a o s and social distancing stickers.

he dining oom has been ca ved up so that different year groups can come in and out different ways and not breach thei bubbles his has changed the a main meals are being served. We have also had to remove hot desserts, so we now pre-wrap all puddings. We have reduced the menu to a two-week rotating menu, changing half-termly to keep some variety.

If you could summarise the best thing about running the Catering Department at NHEHS in a couple of sentences, what would you say?

It is great to have the freedom to make my own decisions and having a good team of staff with different ideas and talents. But most of all it’s the satisfaction of seeing the pupils receive their food and the excitement on their faces when they see new food offers or their favourite meals.

You should see their faces when sushi is being offered ... pure glee! ●

NATALIE ARESTIS is the Communications Manager at Notting Hill & Ealing High School. GDST

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TALKING POINT

- TALKING POINT -

CURRICULUM CALLOUTS Nick Gallop argues that social media campaigns seeking to ‘decolonise’ the curriculum through online ‘shaming’ should be resisted if lasting, considered reform is to be secured.

T

he earliest use of the word curriculum dates back to medieval times and derives from the Latin currere – the course of a race. It was in the 1300s that many high-born children began to follow a curriculum that blended Latin, French, chess, archery, falconry and song-writing.

Unstinting change

Latterly, from the ‘triumph of progressive reform’ of the 1944 Butler Act, which captured the post-war consensus for a new educational dawn, through to the 1988 Education Reform Act, which formalised subjects and standards into a National Curriculum, change has been unstinting. ecent reforms have adapted, modified, expanded, overhauled or restructured the school curriculum. There has been more prolonged scrutiny of the school curriculum than almost any other area of public life, with experts re ecting, exploring and recommending changes to literacy and numeracy, to key stages and to foundation subjects and, most recently (and in some cases wreckfully) to public examination courses.

Lately though, another mechanism for fast-tracking major curriculum change has come into play – one that stands to bypass the time-consuming checks and balances of more legitimate means of

‘we must react rigorously to curricular exclusions of all kinds’ 42 | schoolmanagementplus.com | Winter 2021

‘all educational initiatives to highlight and eradicate racism are to be supported’ reform, and the expertise and measured re ection that are invariably the hallmar s of it. It takes the form of an online ‘callout’ to decolonise the curriculum.

Inescapable realities

Before separating aim from method, two inescapable realities remain. First, that too many curriculum experiences propagate the nation’s imperial legacy. Rather than positive and affirming narratives of blac British culture and migration, black history is too often framed around slavery and colonialism and black literature around suffering and victimhood. Second, the continuing corrosive presence of racism in society remains abhorrent, with multiple indicators revealing entrenched disparities along racial lines. Needless to say, all educational initiatives to highlight and eradicate racism are to be supported.

However, some methods associated with the anti-racism movement have drawn criticism. Chief among these are tactics that frequently run counter to a campaign that seeks to challenge injustice, intimidation and fear. Familiar to many

schools, colleges and universities are callouts, often in the shape of open letters demanding institutional change, or public petitions seeking to shame into reform.

A courtroom composed of clicks

The tactic of the callout is roundly condemned by the likes of former US president Barack Obama, who highlights the self-indulgence of young activists who rush to judge others amid ‘the illusion that you’re effecting change, even if that is not true’. Others, such as celebrated African American academic, feminist Loretta Ross, argue that public shaming callouts are too often characterised ‘by those who believe they have greater integrity or more sophisticated analyses... the self-appointed guardians of political purity’ operating in ‘a courtroom composed of clicks’.

Our school curriculums are precious, ideally fully embodying our values and principles. But that does not make them perfect, nor free from favouritism, misplaced preference or bias. Reasoned and respectful public challenge provides an opportunity to enhance what we teach, not diminish it. However, when confronted with an alarming online wave, the danger of a panicked response or of ‘curriculum capture’ by a mobilised faction lurks.

‘Rather than simply endorsing complaints from the most vocal,’ argues Steven Greer recently in the TES, ‘we mustreact rigorously to curricular exclusions of all kinds’. ●

NICK GALLOP is headmaster of Stamford School, editor of Politics Review and author of Hodder Education’s UK Politics Annual Update.

Winter 2021 | schoolmanagementplus.com | 43

44 | schoolmanagementplus.com | Winter 2021